piyaztli. | Nahuatl Dictionary

piyaztli.

Headword:

piyaztli.

Principal English Translation:

a long thin squash (see Molina); also, a tube; and by extension, the urethra (see Sahagún); a long thin gourd used to conduct liquid (Kartunnen)

Orthographic Variants:

piaztli

Alonso de Molina:

piaztli. calabaza larga y delgada, que sirue de auenencia.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 81v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English:

piaztli = tube (listed in association with the urethra); piaztic = tube-like; topiazio = our tube; vel icac inpiaztli, qualli, in cocôtli = [when] the tube is vertical, the uretha [is] good; vel icac yn acatl, maxixa = [when] the reed is vertical, one urinates (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 132, 133.